Exploring Taman Negara (National Park) - Day 2

Tim and I had a better night and slept until around 5:30 AM.  Another jet-lag night down 9 more to go.  Maybe tonight will be the night we can sleep for 8 hours?  We shall see, but first we have our second and last day left to finish exploring Taman Negara. Today we have a Jungle Walk and Canopy Walk.

After breakfast we met our guide at the front desk at 9 AM.  We walked down to the river where we all boarded a boat to take to the other side of the river where the main entrance to the park is located.  Here we are approaching the park.

We walked up to the park headquarters where I seem to be very interested in the Do's and Don'ts of the park.

Here our guide is explains today's route. We will start at the Park Center, walk to the Tahan Hide to observe wildlife, hike up to the top of Tersek Hill, do the Canopy Walkway, and then finish our hike back at the Park Center.  Total distance is about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles).

Tim and I are ready to go.  The other are just a bit behind us.

This is what the walkway looked like for the entire day.  it was pretty nice to walk on except for the parts that were damaged by elephants.  Yes...there is an elephant herd in this area.  Wouldn't it be cool to get to see one?

I think we are going to see everything on this directions sign.

First stop...Tahan Hide.  Here we are supposed to climb up into this structure to observe animals in the field below.  However, there were 2 macaques monkeys who seem to in the middle of a mating ritual and when we tried to climb the stairs the female went crazy and can be seen in the "crazy monkey" photo below.  So, we were force to try to see something from the ground, but we didn't see anything.  I guess except for aggressive, lustful monkeys.

Throughout the trek we saw lots of signs of elephants including trails thought the forest, footprints, damaged bamboo, and elephant poop.  We didn't however see any elephants.

The guide pointed out some of the local fauna including this Peacock Fern that changes it's leaves to darker green when it needs more sunlight.  In the photo, you can see the different shades of color this fern takes on.

This is called Ghost Finger or Tiger Print Leaves.  Pretty cool.

It is interesting that when we got to a checkpoint to show our permits, they were very meticulous about writing down the detailed information from each permit.  I don't know why they just don't do a visual check and let you pass.  Maybe they are afraid you will use your permit and then pass it on to the next person?  They permit only cost the equivalent of $0.50 so I don't know why you would share?  I guess it is good to provide a job for a local man.

Cool!  We spotted a Water Monitor Lizard.

We saw lots of different trees throughout the day.  Here is a cool one.

This is a Sweat Bee hive which is very interesting. I've never seen anything like this before.

Oh...remember the blow dart gun from yesterday?  This is the resin the indigenous people use to make the part that you blow in.  The guide lit it up with a lighter and it smelled like a very nice incense.  

We arrived at the junction where we can go straight and go up to the vantage points, or we can turn right and go straight to the Canopy Walkway.  Winslow aggravated an old knee injury so he headed toward the Canopy Walkway where he will wait for us as the rest of us headed up.

The guide said it was 1.5 kilometer (almost 1 mile) climb up to the top.  This is what most of it 1 mile looked like.

It was actually very challenging, mostly due to the 98 degree heat and the humidity.  We all made it to the top...at least we thought it was the top...until we were told that we had another 20 minutes to walk.  Well...let's enjoy this view for now.

OK...the guide said 20 minutes...it actually only took 10, and Tim and I made it.  The others had enough at the last viewpoint.

The obligatory photo proof that we made it to the viewpoint.

After a 10 minute or so rest at the top Tim and I headed down and met up with the others at the start of the Canopy Walkway.  This walkway goes for 0.33 miles and averages 100 feet above the forest floor.

Here Peter looks pretty excited about his first step onto the walkway.

It was a little gimmicky, but pretty cool to walk along.

We finally competed the walkway and now had to make our way down, down, down and then back to the Park Center. 

When we got back to the center, we were all pretty tired, hot, and hungry.  None of the restaurants on our side of the river are open for lunch, so we were forced to pay the price at the National Park restaurant that was just OK, but expensive by Malaysia standards.

Tim and I decided to split a pizza as the others ate traditional Malaysian food...oh, except for Peter that also ordered a pizza.

After lunch, before headed to the boat, Tim spotted this tropical tree/plant and wanted a photo with it.  Here it is Tim.

We took the boat back over to our side of the river and walked back to the lodging.  It was about 2:00 PM when we arrived and we all retreated to our rooms for showers, air conditioning, and relaxing.  Around 5:00 PM we decided we had enough resting and headed out in the van to find an viewing spot 25 minutes north of here.

We all loaded in the van and off we went.  When we got to the "spot" the GPS took us there was just a village.  By talking to a local, he told us to continue up the road for another 10 minutes.  After a few more U-turns and getting direction, we arrived a Bukit Awan (Clouds Hill).

We were hoping to see something like this:

But instead we just saw this:

Not bad, but the haziness (not clouds) kept us from having the dream view we were hoping for.  I guess it was nice to get out and have a drive in a nice air-conditioned van and see some of the local villages and scenery.

Even though we didn't get a nice clear view, Susan did get a great group shot:

We headed back to Kuala Tahan, were we were staying, and decided to just drive to the restaurant instead of going back to the lodging, parking the van, and then walking.  We met a couple on the Jungle Trek and they recommended Ann Restaurant where they ate at last night.

TIm and I shared a chocolate and banana ice blend (8 MYR => $1.82 USD) and it was delicious.  Tim ordered a double cheeseburger (7 MYR => $1.59 USD) and I had seafood fried noodle (10 MYR => $2.27 USD) that I forgot to take a photo of, but it looked and tasted great.  Total cost of the meal was 25 MYR or $5.68!!

When we were walking from the parking lot to the restaurant I noticed a store that sold beer, so we popped in there to pick up a couple of cans.  We bought Tiger Beer that we remember drinking when we visited Southeast Asia back in 2013.  The 2 cans of beer cost 22 MYR => $5 USD)...almost the same cost as our entire dinner!

We drove back to our lodging and headed to our rooms.  Wow...air conditioner is a wonderful invention!  So, I'm sitting here blogging and finishing my Tiger beer as Tim is sleeping away at almost 11 PM.  It is definitely time to go to sleep.  Tomorrow we check out of here and head southeast to Pahang.  So until then...